Technical Field
The present invention relates to a blood vessel diameter measurement device for measuring the diameter of a blood vessel in a living body by using ultrasonic waves.
Related Art
A conventional measurement device is known which measures the diameter of a blood vessel in a living body by using ultrasonic waves (see Japanese Patent No. 4441664, for example).
In this measurement device according to Japanese Patent No. 4441664, an ultrasonic probe is provided which is provided with a first array and a second array in a direction which intersects with the axial direction of a blood vessel. Each array has a plurality of ultrasonic elements. In each array, the plurality of ultrasonic elements transmits ultrasonic waves to the blood vessel so that the ultrasonic waves are parallel to each other, and receives the ultrasonic waves reflected by the blood vessel. The time from transmission to reception of the ultrasonic waves is measured, and the diameter of the blood vessel is computed based on the measured time.